Brief Answer:
Jesus did not enjoy hypocrites either. There are hypocrites in the church, and everywhere else you find people. So, what is your point? You cannot judge a belief system by the people who claim to follow it but are not.
And if you don’t want to be around any hypocrites, move to an isolated cabin where no people will visit, and then you will be stuck with only one hypocrite.
Detailed Answer:
To say you are not going to go to church because there are hypocrites there is like saying, “I am not going to the gym because there are too many out of shape people there.” You cannot judge a belief system by people who are violating it, and I found church is a great place for hypocrites to go, and hopefully learn to be better.
I don’t live up to my standards of how I ought to live, do you live up to yours? No one lives up to what they know is right and wrong. I do agree with the thought there should be less in the church, and it seems especially egregious and glaring when we find those who supposedly accept the Bible going against it by being hypocritical. However, due to my background, I likely have interacted with and known closely more Christians than most people reading this, and therefore, have a much greater data set to work with, and this experience shows there is less hypocrisy in the church, but there will always be some in the church, and some in me, and some in you.
So what? What do you think this means? That Christians are “bad” and not something you want to become? That is an error in logic known as a non-sequitur, which means you have a gap in logic and your claim does not logically result in your conclusion. You cannot judge a belief system negatively based on people who are not following it, as hypocrisy is directly condemned by the Bible. Therefore, if people who call themselves Christians are acting hypocritically, then they are condemned by the Bible they supposedly believe, and should be working to remove such behavior from their life.
I probably know many, many more Christians, and much deeper than those who bring this objection – so I have a bigger, better set of data – and I know Christians have worked on and removed hypocrisy to a much higher degree than non-Christians.
Further, the church is not a hospital for saints but for sinners. Anywhere there are people, you will find hypocrites, which is exactly what the Bible predicts in stating we are all “fallen”, meaning fallen from the position God wanted humanity to be in relationship with Him, which leads to imperfect behavior.
To say you are not going to go to church because there are hypocrites there is like saying, “I am not going to the gym because there are too many out of shape people there.”
Why is hypocrisy or anything wrong if there is no God?
If you think hypocrisy, or anything is truly wrong or evil, universally, for all people, places and times – then you must believe in God. This is covered in the blog or detailed booklet on morality, but the bottom-line is: both atheist and theist philosophers have recognized without a standard beyond all human opinion, and in a position to enforce justice, then nothing can be objectively right or wrong, good or evil.
Christians say that they are so devout and dedicated to their faith, but in reality, they just pick and choose the rules they want to follow.
This is true for some Christians, and many others who claim they are Christians. So, what follows from that? You cannot judge a belief system by those who are not following it. The Bible warns redundantly to avoid being hypocrites, for example, James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Jesus was especially harsh on religious hypocrites, calling them shiny on the outside, but tombs on the inside.
Does the church have hypocrites, yes, and there will always be room for one more. It is a good place for them as Jesus strongly speaks against hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy, I assume, has been a problem in every culture and time. The root of the word derives from a Greek word for “stage actor,” someone appearing to be someone or something else. The way we use it today is “someone pretending to have beliefs or qualities they don’t have.” And it is worse than just acting as the person is trying to deceive others for some personal gain. It is an ugly behavior. It is also especially ugly in Christians as Christ himself specifically commanded against it.
But again, it doesn’t logically follow that going to church isn’t the best for you. On the contrary, if there were no God, then you cannot even claim hypocrisy is wrong, only that you don’t like it.
And if you want to avoid hypocrites, then find an absolutely secluded cabin, where you will never encounter a single other person, and you will then only be stuck with one hypocrite.
